PeriodExercise 2-9 All but #51.The opening “I was saved from sin…but not really saved.” Already suggests ironyin the story. When the author takes his aunt’s words “Seeing light”, he took itquite literally. The enthusiasm of his aunt also suggests that they may be in thesouth, where more gospel and black people are seen in church. It was funny howhe says he sat there waiting for Jesus. It makes the reader think whether he isliterally waiting for Jesus, or figuratively. Enthusiasm “rhythmical sermon,moans, shouts, lonely cries.” The end of the second paragraph says the preacher calls the “young lambs” over to be “saved”. Funny, “But most of us just satthere.” Do children really understand the meaning of Christ? The author really paints a picture of a lively church. “And the whole building rocked with prayer and song.” The line “Still I kept waiting to

see

Jesus.” Answers the question, yeshe is literally waiting for Jesus. And he emphasizes this; he keeps waiting, andwaiting. At last from the peer pressure he joins the crowd to be “saved”. And it’sironic how because of that, he no longer believed in Jesus. This story wasdefinitely more Pathos.2.. The author is twelve. Auntie Reed is very religious. Church going was a normal part of society in his community. Churchgoers are very enthusiastic. Children areconverted at a young age. The energy of the church does not match the emotionof the author. The author does not really understand what “Seeing Jesus” means.The author feels guilty for lying. The author no longer believes in Jesus.3.Emotions and Feelings: the author provokes a feeling of anger or annoyance bydescribing his feeling of being lost and confused within the story. The author letsthe readers know just as much as him, but the other characters do not know. Tone:the contrast of tones between the author’s thoughts and church people, an almostsarcastic tone of irony in the beginning of the story, a sad tone in the end.Figurative Speech: “hot crowded church” “rhythmical sermon, moans shouts andlonely cries and dire pictures of hell” “Some of them jumped up and went to Jesusright away.” “And the whole building rocked with prayer and song.” A sea of shouting” “waves of rejoice”.

Gene Kwan10/8/20081

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Period4.The author grew up with a strong religious background, the author doesn’t knowthat seeing Jesus is not literal, the people in church are incredibly intoxicated bytheir religion, the people in the church fail to see the authors trouble, the author lies and pretends to be “saved”, in the end, no one but the reader understands whatthe author went through thus provoking annoyance towards the church folk theauthor is expressing irony in his story. Finally, “jet black braided hair” and “work gnarled hands,” suggest that the author is black, although he could be Asian,Hughes is far from an Asian surname, and braiding hair among Asians isuncommon5.(don’t do).6.In Langston Hughes’ story

Salvation,

a story of how an event that was supposedto immerse the author into religion ironically causes him to stop believing in Jesus because of misunderstandings from both the author and the church people. Theauthor is brought to church by his aunt to be saved, his aunt tells him when he wassaved “you saw a light” and “something happened to you inside!” The author takes both of these figurative phrases literally and waits for it to happen. Thesecond misunderstanding is when the author misunderstands what “seeing Jesus”meant. He instead waits to see Jesus in a literal way, not in a way where a personsees him religiously. After all the kids have been “saved”, he is still waiting for Jesus. The church people start to grow “worried” about why he wouldn’t come to be saved. If they understood that Hughes wanted to see Jesus in living flesh, theywould not of put all this pressure on him. In the end he lies and is “saved”. Whenreally, he needed Jesus’ help to get out of this situation, but he never “showed”.So the author now no longer believes in Jesus.7. The purpose of this text is to share an experience of irony, and communicate it toa reader. Usually stories about being “saved” are completely different. The author makes a great transition from excitement to irony throughout the story. In the beginning of the story he is excited to be saved, but as the story grows, hemisunderstands the meaning of being saved, and receives pressure from the church.From then on the pressure grows, starting from waiting and waiting for Jesus, to being the only child left to be saved, to having the entire church pray for him to be